29. Hunter

TWENTY-NINE

HUNTER

W hen I see her in the ballroom, I'm convinced my mind is playing tricks on me. Maybe the multi-day alcohol binge I went on after leaving Winter's apartment has caused brain damage and I'm entering psychosis.

But she isn't a figment of my imagination. She's here. In the middle of this fucked-up engagement party.

"Look happy," Blair says through gritted teeth, parodying a smile.

"What's there to be happy about, Blair?" I say back just as tensely.

"There's plenty to smile about, actually. You're rich. You're about to marry me , and you still have your life."

I clear my throat and stay silent.

"Son."

Just fucking great.

Blair beams at my father, turning to him fully, and he takes her hand and kisses the back of it. The look that passes between the two of them lets me know that they're undoubtedly fucking.

Not that I actually give a shit. They could have a three-way wi th Satan for all I care. If they'd just leave me the fuck alone.

"Father," I say, forcing myself to shake his hand.

"I thought you'd be a little more discerning with your invites," he says. If you'd look at the three of us from the outside, you'd see us all smiling, relaxed. But we're anything but.

"Do you have a problem with my guests, Dad ?" I look him dead in the eye. He smiles at the unmistakable sign of aggression.

"Surely not," he replies after a beat. "Well, I see people I need to talk to. Duty calls," he says. He waves to the Vice President, who stands surrounded by a mass of Secret Service agents.

He nods to the both of us and walks off.

"That does beg the question. What do you plan on doing with the child?"

I arch my eyebrow at Blair's question. "Meaning?"

"Well, he won't be living with us. Will you give him to Ella or send him away?"

White hot fury shoots through my body like a lightning bolt from God.

"Excuse me?" I smile brightly to counter the action I want to take, which is to snap her neck in front of every single one of these people. I catch Leo's eye. He's lurking in the shadows, as are at least twenty of our security detail. Tonight isn't the night. But if something were to happen, they'd be here to take it down.

This is all temporary. It's a means to an end.

"Surely you heard me, Hunter." She waves gently at a guest who walks near us.

I move closer to her, pulling her arm so that anyone who sees us will think we're in a lover's embrace. When I lean close to her ear, I say, "If you so much as mention my son ever again in your life, I will put a bullet in your brain myself. "

Then to drive the point home, I kiss her cheek and turn to walk away without another word.

I step down from the platform where Blair and I stand and look through the crowd for August—and Winter. I see August with Ella and move toward them. August seems annoyed, and when he turns his head to the side, I see he has earbuds to dampen the noise.

Smart move.

"Enjoying yourself, brother?" Ella lifts her champagne glass to her mouth and takes a healthy sip.

"Can I go now?" August says. I nod at August since I know he won't be able to hear me.

"Where's Winter?" I ask Ella.

She kicks up one side of her mouth. She looks at me for a moment, then says, "I thought about telling you to fuck off, but I like you tonight. She's in the restroom near the front entrance."

"Get August out of here, will you?" I ask.

She rolls her eyes. "Sure," she grumbles.

I walk through the crowd and toward the front women's restroom. Most guests don't use this one, as the closer bathroom is on the other side of the ballroom.

Once outside the bathroom, I pause against the wall, cherishing the silence.

And when you see her, what will you say to her? Will you beg her to take you back again?

I just want a minute alone with her.

After several heavy moments, I turn to enter the room, questioning if she's even in there. Right when my hand touches the door, she opens it.

We both stare at each other; the moment is tense. But I can't begrudge it for anything. Because the second I look at her beautiful face, I realize I can breathe again.

"Winter," I say .

"Hunter," she replies. Her lips tremble. And then, she's crying.

I cannot stand the sight. I push her back into the bathroom and lock the door as soon as we're both through the threshold. I pull her into my arms.

"Is there anyone in here?" I whisper in her ear.

She shakes her head no.

"Hunter, this hurts . " Her voice breaks with every word, and she's clinging to me just as I'm clinging to her.

"I know it does, baby." I'm rubbing circles on her back, and the rose smell of her hair causes something significant to crack in my chest.

"Why are you doing this to me? To us?" She looks up at me. Her mascara runs down her cheek, and her lipstick is smudged in one corner.

"Sunbeam," I sigh.

"Just give me something here, Hunter. Some explanation as to why you'd string me along like this."

I look at her face. She's shaking in my arms. And then I realize that I can't keep her out of this. I never could.

"Okay, Sunbeam. Let me tell you a story," I begin. "It starts with a young boy. He's pretty spoiled because he was born into unimaginable wealth. His mother was a beautiful person. Happy. Always smiling. Always saying I love you. But his father was evil. Pure evil."

I look past her face and to the far side of the restroom. The picture framed on the wall should be a cheap replica, but it's a real Seurat. In a bathroom. The waste, greed, and disregard of the people I've spent my whole life around churns my stomach.

"His father was the type of evil that was remorseless. He enjoyed and thrived off hurting people. And the fucked-up part is because he was so wealthy, he could do whatever he wanted at scale. Think of funding wars and genocides and selling people into s lavery. But that stuff…a lot of people have a hand in those things. But he was even more depraved. He'd rape and sell children he knew. People he knew. He would hunt people for sport like wild animals. He was a proud, unrepentant slave master."

Winter gasps, and her fingers flex against my chest.

"Let's say this boy's father wants his son to follow in his footsteps. Because that's what's expected of him. So his father shows him what being part of this family means. He tells him the family secrets. He teaches him how to kill, and eventually has the boy kill people, one after the other, dozens. All because the father wanted it done. Because it entertained him. He gives the boy women to fuck at twelve years old. His father's friends introduce him to drugs."

She slams her face into my chest, and her shoulders shake with sobs.

"He is entrenched in what his father does, how he acts, and what he knows. But his mother…his beautiful mother wants out. She was tired of being beaten and abused by her powerful husband. She couldn't look away once she knew of the horrors he inflicted on others. So she tries to stop his father and put him away. But his father is so powerful. Too powerful." I suck in a breath, knowing that this moment could truly tear her from me forever. But I'm resigned that there will be no more secrets. Not anymore.

"His father learns of his mother's betrayal, and he tortures the boy until he tells him his mother's plans. The boy's father burns him, whips him, starves him.…"

I pause. Swallow.

"So the boy cracks. He just wants the pain to end. And the next day, his mother is dead."

Another shudder passes through her, and she stills. Stills for several seconds. Her fingers flex against my chest.

There's so much more that happened.

No more secrets, Hunter .

I clear my throat, trying to ease the tightness. Trying to say the words.

But the idea of telling her all of it?

I stare at the top of her head, catching a glimpse of her long eyelashes.

I can't tell her that .

"Imagine that boy is changed forever. He hates himself every single day. He does drugs. He gets drunk. He fucks. He gets a girl pregnant. He's a shithead to her and to everyone. He craves the power of providing pain—of hurting people—because in his fucked up life, that's the only thing that makes sense. But when his baby is born, the boy is so, so, so scared. Because he has someone to care about. To cherish. To protect. And he doesn't think he can protect his child at all. His father will destroy his son just for the right to make the boy hurt. So the boy runs away. Runs away to the farthest-flung parts of the world. Runs away even though he knows he's running on borrowed time. And while he's running, the only thing he really wants is to have someone care about him. To have a family. But he knows he can't have that."

I kiss the top of her head, breathing in her scent.

"And then, that boy's carefully orchestrated escape plan blows to pieces…but, in the midst of that chaos he meets a woman. A woman who embodies the sun."

I put my cheek to the top of her head. Everything feels right for the first time since I left her apartment. Finally.

"That boy falls in love with the sunshine. Deeply, madly in love. So now, the boy has so much to lose. And he'll do everything he can to keep the people he loves safe. Even if that means finishing what his mother started all those years ago."

I push my hands into her hair, satisfied as pins fall from her curls. I rub a lock of her hair between my fingers.

She slowly pulls her face from my chest. Her swollen eyes and red nose only add to her beauty because they highlight the rawness of her emotions .

"My father is a terrible, terrible human, Winter. And he's threatened not just me but Leo, Ella, my company, and August. Everyone is at risk, and I didn't want to add you to the list of targets, plus if shit went sideways…I wanted you to have plausible deniability. I've been trying to protect you. I didn't want you to get caught up in all my shit. But I see that shutting you out is not how to do that."

"Thank you for telling me, H."

I don't reply. I just keep looking at her face and rubbing the back of her neck. In the main hall, someone calls out a one-minute warning to the new year.

"Does it…" She bites her lip.

"Does it what, Sunbeam?" She closes her eyes when I call her Sunbeam.

"Does it make me crazy," she opens her eyes, "that I still want to be with you knowing all that?"

My heart thuds in my chest.

"No.Because I'm crazy for you."

"Will you kiss me, H? Will you make it better? I don't care anymore. I just want to be with you."

I rub her cheek, taking in every part of her radiance.

"No," I say.

"No?" She takes one step back, then another.

"No, Sunbeam. Because I want you to be sure. I want you to know that you're a hundred percent mine the next time I kiss you. And that nothing and no one will stop you from being mine."

Her breath hitches.

"Ten!" the crowd chants from outside our sanctuary. We stare at each other; the space between our bodies is electric, pulsing.

"I want to know that we're in this together, facing down the bullshit together. And that when I'm inside you in the next five seconds, you're completely committed to me. Just like I'm completely committed to you. So think, baby. "

She bites her lip, and the five-second countdown begins in the hall.

"Five," I count.

"I have missed you so much, H."

"Four," I say. I step closer to her.

"It's been like part of my body is missing every day we've been apart."

"Me too. Three."

"I won't let you marry that bitch. You're not hers to have."

"Of course not. Because I belong to you. Two," I say. I take another step closer to her.

"I love you so much, Hunter Brigham. It's crazy, but I do."

I take the final step, which places her back in my arms. "One."

"Times up, H." She smiles. And I crash my mouth against hers as the crowd cheers.

We battle each other, fighting to breathe in each other's air and merge into one with our mouths. She doesn't bother with my shirt, reaching down to unbuckle my pants and then sliding her warm hand in to caress my already hard cock.

She groans in my mouth, and I push her back against the wall, pulling the skirt of her dress up past her waist. I waste no time pulling her thong aside and plunging a finger into her wet warmth.

"H, please, God," she whispers into my mouth. She bites my lip.

I can't help but release a growl. "I'm going to fuck you, Winter," I say in reply.

"Please," she begs.

Pulling my fingers from her drenched slit, I push them into her mouth. "See how good you taste," I grind out, and she sucks eagerly on my fingers.

Her hand spasms on my cock, squeezing it.

I turn her around to face the wall. She splays her fingers flat o n the wallpaper and arches her back, sticking her ass out toward me.

If there's anything I want to see right before I die, it's this image.

I palm her ass, squeezing it in my hands. "One day, I'm going to fuck this too."

She pants. "I want you to fuck me everywhere, H," she says. "But if you don't get inside me in the next five seconds, I'm gonna take matters into my own hands." She wiggles her ass for emphasis. I lean over her back and nip her ear.

"Patience, love." I turn her face into mine and kiss her hungrily.

I pull my dick out of my pants, stroking it twice before taking one hand to lift her left leg up and using my right to place my cock at the mouth of her pussy.

"Let's do this together," I whisper. Reaching down the front of her body, she curls a hand around my dick and slowly pushes back until I'm fully seated inside her.

"Hold on to the wall, Sunbeam," I growl. She trembles and places both hands flat on the wall again, lowering her chest to rest flush against it.

"Fuck me like I'm yours, my love," she says, and I snap my hips forward to do just that.

When she moans, the sound causes all my thoughts, emotions, and anxieties from the days we've been apart to surface. I press my fingers into her hips, pulling her back on my dick with a punishing slap.

Leaning over her, my lips graze the shell of her ear when I say, "You think you can end us, Winter?"

I stroke my cock in and out of her, slapping my balls against her clit with every thrust. "Ending us is impossible, Sunbeam." She releases a choked sob, and I tilt her back more to hit her spot.

"Even when we're both dead and in the ground, my soul will f ind yours." I rub her clit in circles, pressing hard to give her the firm pressure I know she craves.

"Our children and children's children will know about our love."

Her cries escalate.

"Shhh, love, you don't want them to hear you. Or do you?"

Her head tilts back, rocking from side to side on my shoulder.

"Come for me, baby." I pick up the pace, not letting up on her clit, and she reaches to grip the back of my head.

"Hunter, come in me." She's panting after every word, and I feel my balls draw up tight at the command.

"Ah, Hunter!" She spasms around me, squeezing my dick so hard that I feel the strangle in my throat. She's coming. Hard. "H, it's too much!"

I'm rubbing her pussy and slamming into her so hard that I'm bottoming out inside her.

"Again," I say, and I deliver a slap to her clit. She jerks and screams as she slides up to that peak again. Her entire body trembles, her voice caught in her throat until moments later she's keening into the fist she's pressed to her mouth. I want to rejoice at the sensation of wetness drenching my cock and slacks.

I don't give a fuck about a stain.

"Winter," I groan. The base of my spine tingles, and before I erupt, I say, "Are you sure you want my cum, baby?"

"Yes! Yes, yes, yes, please," she pleads, and that's all it takes for me to shoot deep inside her.

She's milking me, squeezing the cum out of my dick as I empty my balls.

I move my hand to rest over her lower stomach. Dreaming.

I lean an arm against the wall in front of us and lower her leg to the ground. Slowly, I pull out of her and hold her close to me.

"What do we do now, Hunter?" she whispers.

"Now, we move forward together."